Can't or won't pick up the leg how to make it less of an issue

When a horse can't do something, we become focused on that one thing the horse cannot do and often forget there are many roads that lead to Rome

The biggest thing I often see is that owners often think their horse won't lift their leg and not that they can't, and it can become a battle of the equivalent of us trying to powerlift a rhinoceros and the more we pull the more they plant.

For all legs are weight bearing yet when the body is in compensation some more weight bare than more and we always want equal loading basically we want the leg to take only the weight it should be taking when standing or in motion

Refusal or struggling to pick a leg up has many reasons but usually balance and pain either previous or present is the most common so what can we do

We cannot fight or force the horse to do it they will always win on strength, and do we want to as you may get the leg up this time but as always, the second time you do something the horse is like nope, I am not doing that

The first thing to address is do not think of the leg that you want to lift as your horse will know even if you are nowhere near the leg if your intention is to get there they will know (have you ever shifted your focus and your horse gives you the side eye like erm nope I heard your thoughts)

Second think of the things you can do to help take the strain off the leg that is compensating because often it's not the leg that has the problem that they won't lift it’s the compensating leg we just have to figure out which one

Third if your horse doesn't have shoes on then not picking them out every day is not a crime often the debris flips out as it builds up

Fourth you are not alone there are many horses that I work on due to age or injury they can't do what they used to we just have to figure out how we can help without causing more stress

Here is a little video that I often do with horse to help relieve one leg while weight shifting to the other this is part of my online course and it you want to find more just search for breathe through bodywork on vimeo